Have your say on children's rights

A Bill of Rights is a law protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms to which each person is entitled to enjoy. These rights normally only bind public institutions, although, in some countries, such as South Africa, private bodies are covered.

Usually individuals can seek remedies in their local courts for alleged breaches of these rights and in some instances organisations can take cases if they feel a breach has occurred. In most cases a Bill of Rights is included in the country's constitution, for example, India, USA, Canada and the Republic of Ireland.

Those rights might include the right to life, the right to freedom of religion, the right to freedom of expression, the right to education or the right to good health care. Each country’s Bill of Rights should reflect the particular needs and circumstances of its people.

Why does Northern Ireland need a Bill of Rights?

Because of the ‘particular circumstances’ of Northern Ireland’s past, people here have seen a need for a new law to protect our rights and freedoms as a basic building block of a fresh start for everyone.

To enable this process special rights may have to be devised the areas of:

• equality;
• education;
• language;
• cultural expression and identity;
• victims' rights;
• social and economic rights;
• criminal justice and
• implementation.

It is also necessary to consider the guarantees which may be required for certain groups of people, such as women, disabled people and children. In this sense, the people of Northern Ireland are like other peoples who have emerged from periods of intense violence and conflict.

A Bill of Rights can help ensure that the injustices of the past are never repeated and that the future provides equality and freedom for all.

Background

A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland was promised to the people of Northern Ireland by the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, 1998. Following this agreement, the Northern Ireland Act of 1998 established the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and gave it specific duties in relation to a Bill of Rights.

The Commission is directed by section 69(7) to "advise" the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on what should be in a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. In 2000 the NIHRC launched a wide scale consultation process during which time the children’s sector were particularly active in campaigning, awareness raising and capacity building.

You may remember in 2003 signing up to a statement of support for strong protection of the rights of children in the Bill of Rights.

Progress on the Bill of Rights has been frustratingly slow, with the children’s and other sectors continuingly lobbying, but in the past year the momentum has increased considerably with the commitments made under the St Andrews Agreement. In October 2006 it was agreed that a Forum would be established to advise the NIHRC on the content of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland as it fulfils its statutory duty in providing advice to the Secretary of State.

The Forum is chaired by an international lawyer, Chris Sidoti and is comprised of 14 political representatives and 14 civil society representatives. The children’s sector is represented by Paddy Kelly, (Children’s Law Centre) and Sheri Chamberlain (Save the Children). Seven working groups were established to advise the forum on specific areas of rights and were due to issue draft reports by Dec 6th 2007 with a view to a final submission by 15th Jan 2008.

Children’s Working Group

The Children’s Working Group (one of seven working groups) was established by the Forum to propose draft recommendations on the rights of children in the Bill of Rights. The Working Group consists of five political and five civil society representatives chaired by, Sorcha McKenna, a representative of the children’s sector.

The group met from July-November 2007 and with aid of a legal advisor proposed a draft report containing child specific rights for inclusion in the Bill of Rights. The report will be the subject of consultation until early January when the Working Group final reports will be submitted to the Forum for debate. The Forum will spend until the 31st March compiling their report to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Submissions

Please email comments in Word format by 6th January 2008 in order to influence this part of the process. Submissions shold be emailed to McKenna-S15@ulster.ac.uk.

All submissions received will be sent to the Children's Working Group for consideration and will be fed into their final report on Januray 15th. There will be more general consultations taking place later in the process.